Statements on the art

Artist Statement
Will Felix seeks a way of participating visually in a conversation about the world we live in, while circumventing the impasse of communicating in the modern town hall.

The current works are created in the digital realm, allowing for a contemporary challenge of expressing painterly abstraction influenced by the 20th century masters such as the Fauves and the Orphists. Will chooses to return to the symbolic explorations that were taking place before commercialism and hyperconceptualism took hold, in the hopes of encouraging greater reflection upon our realities.

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”― C.G. Jung

The work of Will Felix is dreamlike, vibrant with the alchemy of the ever-waking mind interpreting dream symbols—or, better, translating them, from forms in the mind to images on canvas. Through color and flow, subtly applied but plain-spoken symbolism, and the honesty of a floral arrangement, his works deliver a visual poetry that is direct and accessible.

Aesthetically, his work moves between flows and eddies of energy to granular and geometric states of being. Thematically, he explores emotional and psychological themes, distilling them into potent forms of deceptive simplicity, as when a song’s powerful refrain lingers long after you’ve forgotten the rest of the words, carrying the real weight of what matters. In this way, every piece is both a captured moment of insight into a state of mind that anyone can recognize, as well as being a catalyst for the viewer’s own emotional understanding.

Visually arresting, cathartic and inspiring, poignant and comforting, Will Felix’s works speak to a life that is lived in and explored, calling the viewer to feel the resonance in their own life. Each work is alive, waking. Each is a facet of understanding life.

― Jaimie Pomeroy, 2017

My theory is that organic abstraction holds the key to promoting contemplation in a society that desperately needs it. The figurative elements suggest the narrative that viewers might be expecting; yet the abstraction draws them to think about it deeper than just on the surface. Whether they choose to accept it or not is the dilemma. The public might run away again. I will go on making such works anyway… perhaps a select few will benefit from them, or perhaps they might inspire another generation as the Expressionists did me.